Bali fears tourism downturn

For the people of Bali yesterday’s triple bomb blasts are a nightmare revisited. Hospitals are struggling to cope with the casualties as officials try to establish the names and nationalities of victims. The resort had only just recovered from the 2002 attacks. One Australian tourist said he was reluctant to leave:

“ We don’t want to abandon the Balinese people. cause Bali people aren’t to blame for all this sort of stuff , so …we’ve only just really arrived, we want to stay for the rest of their holiday and try to enjoy it.” Australia, which may have the highest number foreign casualties, is sending military planes to help evacuate its citizens. Some departing tourists spoke of narrow escapes: “It happened a place where we have eaten ourselves five times during our holiday… we just passed and we were thirty seconds away when we heard the detonations and it was just horrible,” one man said. There were mixed reports from officials about numbers of tourists leaving and cancelled holidays. The island, which relies on tourism for 70 percent of its economy, will be hoping the coming days do not reveal another steep downturn.

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